Greet the new year by tapping into some new resources.
Free app for patients with Crohn’s Disease
GI Buddy is a free tool from the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America that patients can use to stay on top of managing their Crohn’s Disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms. Patients can record what they eat, track their treatment and well-being, and access detailed reports. Patients also can access a video of tips for using GI Buddy, which is available online and as an iPhone app. (more…)
The guidelines include recommendations for practice, education, policy, and future resource. Strategies for implementation are given, as well as several useful appendices, such as:
• Debridement Decision-Making Algorithm
• A Guide to Dressing Foot Wounds
• PEDIS: Diabetes Foot Ulcer Classification System
• Offloading Devices
• Optimal Treatment Modalities.
PREPARE is a useful and patient-friendly website designed to help prepare people to make complex medical decisions. The website was developed by clinical researchers from the San Francisco VA Medical Center; the University of California, San Francisco; and NCIRE—The Veterans Health Research Institute.
PREPARE uses videos to provide concrete examples of how to identify what is most important in life; how to communicate that with family, friends, and doctors; and how to make informed medical decisions when the time comes. Users can also download a PDF of a PREPARE pamphlet.
Free guides for infection prevention from APIC
Download two free implementation guides for infection prevention from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC):
This revised guide contains strategies for prevention, considerations for specific patient populations, evolving practices, and how to incorporate current regulations.
Topics include:
• C. difficile in pediatrics and skilled nursing facilities
• pathogenesis and changing epidemiology of C. difficile infection diagnosis
• environmental control
• new and emerging technologies
• tools and examples to help apply preventative measures, such as hand hygiene monitoring, environmental cleaning, and isolation compliance.
This guide includes infection-prevention standards, regulations, and best practices, as well as instructions, examples, and tools to conduct surveillance and risk assessments.
Most patients are distressed to learn they need ostomy surgery to divert stool, urine, or both. Adapting to ostomy surgery can be difficult at best, even with today’s advanced technology and the wide assortment of ostomy supplies available. While recovering from the surgery itself, patients must learn how to contain or control feces or urine and how to minimize odor—without feeling like a social outcast.
This article reviews three types of ostomy surgery—colostomy, ileostomy, and urostomy. Subsequent articles will discuss ostomy management and treatment of stomal and peristomal skin complications. (more…)
Here are resources that can help you in your busy clinical practice by giving you information quickly.
Pressure ulcer resources
Instead of searching through Google or another search engine for pressure ulcer resources, start with this comprehensive list on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website.
Examples of resources included are:
“Preventing pressure ulcers in hospitals: A toolkit for improving quality of care.” This toolkit from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is designed to help hospitals in implementing pressure ulcer prevention strategies.
“On-time pressure ulcer healing project.” Another AHRQ initiative, this resource is designed for those working in long-term care facilities.
“Pressure ulcer prevention.” This table from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement lists possible mentors you can work with in the area of ulcer prevention.
“Shawnee Medical Center wound care quick reference guide.” This is a handy one-page reference guide that includes photographs and recommendations.
“How-to guide: Prevent pressure ulcers—pediatric supplement.” This guide, tailored for pediatrics, describes key evidence-based care components for preventing pressure ulcers and describes how to implement these interventions.
You can also access case studies from a variety of facilities around the United States.
The National Lymphedema Network is a nonprofit organization founded in 1988 to provide education and other information to healthcare professionals and patients with lymphedema, as well as the general public. The site includes an explanation of lymphedema that may be helpful for you to use in teaching your patients. It also includes access to some of the articles from the newsletter LymphLink.
Many patients with chronic wounds have diabetes. To ensure those patients receive the best possible care, you can refer to the 2013 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes from the American Diabetes Association, which were published in the January issue of Diabetes Care.
The journal provides a summary of the revisions and an executive summary of the standards related to each area, including diagnosis, testing, prevention, monitoring, and pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic management.
The guidelines include valuable information related to neuropathy screening and treatment and foot care. Recommendations for foot care include performing an annual comprehensive foot examination to identify risk factors predictive of ulcers and amputations. The foot examination should include inspection, assessment of foot pulses, and testing for loss of protective sensation.
